Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1341

From Medjugorje Flakiness...

to the latest YouCat debacle, Cdl. Schoenborn seems to be a (ahem) loose canon.

It's moments like this I wish the fantasy that Benedict is a Rottweiler were true.

Hey Western Washington!

Dear Friends of the Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society,

We invite you to join us next Thursday evening for our fifth gathering of this season at the Catholic Newman Center of the University of Washington, located at 4502 20th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105.

Thursday, April 14, 2011, at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

Make-Believer:
How Hobbits and "Happily Ever After" Inspire My Faith

Mr. Jeffrey Overstreet
Author and film critic

Voices in Christian media continue to warn us about the dangers of fantasy stories like Twilight, How to Train Your Dragon, The Golden Compass, Avatar, and the Harry Potter stories. But novelist Jeffrey Overstreet goes on fearlessly reading and writing stories about magic and monsters. Are fairy tales and pagan mythology dangerous? Overstreet will share with us what he has learned while exploring fairy-tale wonderlands with the compass of Christian faith. And he will describe the dragons he fought while writing his own four-book fantasy series,The Auralia Thread.

Jeffrey Overstreet is the author of a four-book fantasy series that includesAuralia's Colors, Cyndere's Midnight, Raven's Ladder and The Ale Boy's Feast(WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group). An award-winning film critic, Jeffrey contributes reviews to ImageJournal.org every month, and has written a "memoir of dangerous moviegoing" called Through a Screen Darkly (Regal Books). He works as a contributing editor for Seattle Pacific University's Response magazine.

Please see our full Events Calendar for more details pertaining to meetings. Parking at the Newman Center is extremely limited. It is recommended that commuters park in the nearby "N5" lot on the University campus, accessible via the north gate at NE 45th St and Memorial Way. The fee for evening parking in the University lots is $5.00. Campus maps showing the exact location of the N5 lot are available here.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday evening!

Yours faithfully,

The Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society

Four Myths...

...about the Crusades.

Speaking of useful clubs weilded by our Chattering Classes who care not a jot about Third Worlders, but about defeating people in our culture that they hate (supreme among them, Catholics).

Chattering Class Conflicts

Decisions, decisions. On the one hand, it has been hip to beatify Ghandi ever since Richard Attenborough's hagiographic pic came out 20 years ago. On the other hand, Ghandi was mortally opposed to contraception, which utterly confuses our chattering classes.

The normal scale of values in such matters is that Third World chic trumps Eurocentrism, but the sexual demands of trendy Brits and Americans trumps all. Third Worlders matter, not in themselves, but as useful clubs for members of the Chattering Classes to beat up on people in their own culture whom they dislike.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Last week we discovered that God has blessed us with another child (on the Feast of the Annunciation, no less!). This is my sixth pregnancy but will only be my fourth birth, as I have had two miscarriages in the past. Prayers would be appreciated for the health and safety of this child. He or she is due to arrive around Christmas.

Father, hear our prayer for a safe and healthy delivery and baby! Thank you for new life! Mother Mary, pray for this family! We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

By the way, I'd appreciate prayers for me too. I'm applying for a job as a Director of Faith Formation and Evangelization at my parish and I could really use the prayer support that I do a good job should I get hired.

Oh, and here's a praise report on a prayer request from last week:

Sent to us from the hospital on Wednesday Evening, April 6, 2011

To everyone who has been praying for L----.

She had surgery today. It went well. They took the baby out and the baby is doing well. Over five pounds. L---- is recovering well and breathing well.

They did not remove the placenta. There will be another surgery at some as yet unspecified time.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please keep praying.

Father, hear our pray for a full recovery through Christ our Lord. Amen! Mother Mary, pray for this family. You too, St. Luke and St. Gianna Molla.

Was Sitting Bull Catholic?

Mary Kochan does the gumshoe work on the case.

As a Matter of Fact, Yes!

Hedy Lamarr was a rocket scientist:

Jack Smith at the Catholic Key writes:

Regarding the Cardinal Newman report on Catholic colleges referring students to Planned Parenthood today. Some excerpts:
Your Child's Reproductive Health Care Needs
Are well attended to at Catholic Colleges and Universities around the country according to sad, but not altogether unexpected, findings from the Cardinal Newman Society. . .

. . .Here's why I think that is significant in a way that applies to all the Catholic colleges which refer to Planned Parenthood. If tomorrow, I decided to put up a blog post recommending to my young pregnant readers that they visit Planned Parenthood or form their consciences on the issue of abortion by reading Catholics For Choice, it would mean I've got another job lined up. That's because I:

1. Work for a Catholic institution,
2. Know I work for a Catholic institution,
3. Know the expectations of working for a Catholic institution,
4. And know the consequence of violating such a core principle of that institution would mean I'm fired.

A lot of my friend's on the left criticize the Cardinal Newman Society for the lacunae in their reporting on the Catholicity of Catholic Colleges and/or a perceived theological bias – What about the mission trips? What about the service learning? What about the justice education? Cardinal Newman is not telling the full story about our Catholic colleges, they say.

But let us not ask the Cardinal Newman Society. Let's ask the employees of Catholic Colleges whether they:

1. Work for a Catholic institution,
2. Know they work for a Catholic institution,
3. Know the expectations of working for a Catholic institution
4. and know that the consequences of violating core principles of a Catholic institution would mean their discharge.

In a way, by looking at whether a college refers its students to an abortion mill, the Cardinal Newman Society has simply let the employees of Catholic colleges answer those questions for themselves. And in at least 150 instances, the reply was a resounding "NO!" MORE

Big Brother Knows Best

Parents not allowed to make sack lunch for kids by public school.

Have I mentioned that we homeschool?

Today....

I'm behind on my work due to doing a bunch of other stuff this week. So, once again, I have to beg off from blogging.

See you next week!